Athenaeum Hotel

Excellent food & service. Very pricey, but it is a cut above the rest. The Morrocan stew had a unique & excellent taste. I would highly recommend the Athenaeum to anyone willing to pay their prices.

Dinner party of six around 5pm on a Wednesday. What could go wrong? Everything! Service was lazy, food was mediocre, prices were really high, and the dining room was loud. Oh yeah, and they required reservations, but were not clear on how to take a reservation over the phone. This place is a joke.
Save yourself. Do not go. You’d be better off getting takeout literally anywhere else (spoiler: you have almost no options here!) and eating by the lake.
On the bright side, the chocolate cake dessert was okay. They failed to bring extra forks when asked, though.

It’s hard to know what to say about this place. So, I’m going to do it as a list of pros and cons…
Pros:
— Location — This is a grand building right on the lake and directly adjacent to the amphitheatre. We were only at the Institution for the weekend, so it was nice that we didn’t have to drive in and out all the time.
— Restaurant — We heard that the restaurant changed hands in the last year or so and they were making improvements. The food was delicious at dinner and fine at breakfast. The breakfast buffet didn’t blow me away, but there was also nothing to complain about. The omelet and smoothie stations were highlights.
— Service — Yes, this place is staffed mostly by summer students, so it’s not always the polished service you would get at other hotels at this price point. That said, we found service to be consistently quick and friendly.
— Common areas — the lobby and wrap-​around porch were lovely as were the grounds
— History — A place where Edison spent lots of time as well as numerous US Presidents, the place oozes history, which is kind of cool.
Cons:
— Facilities — It’s all very dated. Very. Floral wallpaper that you can see the seams on, bathroom fixtures that haven’t been upgraded in decades, tube TV, 80’s dressers, sagging mattresses, loud window heating/​cooling units. Our room also smelled of its age.
Neutral:
— Price — Chautauqua is expensive. You can’t deny it. Our room was definitely over-​priced for what we got but it was still the best deal we found in our planning. We scored a great weekend package that included the room, dinner each night, breakfast, brunch on Sunday, parking, and our gate passes.
Even with the rooms being what they were, we still felt good about the choice. I’m not sure Chautauqua is my thing but that is beside the point.

We just returned from a long weekend at the hotel and had a GREAT time! Our standard room was updated and very comfortable. It has a great 19^th century feel that is so rare these days.
The staff is friendly and they try hard to ensure a comfortable stay.
We would have given five stars but the restaurant is a solid four star. The food is plentiful, brkfst is included with many choices, overall good but opportunity to do better based on the price.
Stay here on your next visit. The hotel is very cool, the staff terrific, views that cannot be beat, and you are right on the water.

We were looking forward and expecting a lovely experience on the beautiful terrace overlooking Chautauqua Lake at the Institution, but instead it was terrible.
Three adults, three children, we made a reservation for 9:30AM, which was the latest available reservation for the breakfast «grand buffet». We were seated, served coffee by inexperienced (probably seasonal) waitstaff, and then we had to ask about where to find the buffet, all within 10 minutes of our reservation time. When we got to the buffet, the food was GONE! They had cleared every tray of food and the omelet station was closed. All within 10 minutes of our reservation. The manager was not at all helpful. After much quarreling, she had the kitchen bring back the OLD food, crusty and disgusting from the kitchen. She was rude, defensive, and unhelpful. With three small, hungry children, we had no choice but to leave without breakfast. What a disappointment. Such a beautiful setting, with such a disappointing poorly managed restaurant. The Athenaeum needs a major overhaul to improve upon their dining situation. We received better food, better service, and a better attitude from the diner instead. Terrible!

It was the worst room I spent the night in (five nights actually) in fifty years. I’m old. I have spent the night in Super 8 motel rooms far more comfortable than this. Our current favorite chain is the Residence Inn by Marriott.
Two major problems were the room is tiny with absolutely no counter top space and a rare few power outlets and second the furnishings were old and beat up. It had broken down wooden shutters on the INSIDE of the room.
Total furnishings consisted of 1) one king size bed 2) two small bedside stands 3) two small old shabby wicker chairs 4) two tall skinny, beat up drawer units and 5) one small old tube type TV. No desk. No table. Very ugly wall paper from (it seems) the 1940’s.
We were there in October (off season) with a group of Road Scholars so noise is not a problem except when one hard of hearing person is talking to another hard of hearing person. Our average age was about 85 give or take. There was no late party activity even though I understand they have abandoned the old rule that you could not bring any alcohol onto the property.
The food served was mostly pretty good except for our final night when the young guy wearing the tall chef’s hat carved the prime rib with the grain instead of across the grain and it was almost inedible.
We will never stay in this hotel again.

We booked a block of rooms here for our wedding and our guests were so happy! The hotel staff was so helpful and accommodating — I would definitely recommend! not to mention that the history here is a huge draw as well!

The hotel itself is well preserved, awe inspiring and definitely worth visiting. The restaurant is another matter. r went for Sunday brunch. Poor food quality and preparation. Extremely pricey. Compared to most Sunday brunches there was a real lack of variety and types of food.

We took advantage of a Unilocal 20% coupon to try the lunch buffet after a several-​year hiatus from the Athenaeum restaurant. The setting is absolutely lovely with a beautiful view of the lake; the structure is very impressive; the servers (who seem to be, understandably, seasonal help without much experience) were friendly and did a fine job. There was some confusion over the coupon at the beginning (neither servers nor manager were aware of the coupon, or had heard of Unilocal), but all was honored in the end with a pleasant attitude. Nice people.
The real concern here is the relationship between the quality of the food and the price ($ 40+ fixed before the coupon). That restaurant food quality in the Chautauqua area is absurdly low is no surprise to those of us who have been around here for decades, but for the price at the Athenaeum, one still expects much more. I do realize that these are seasonal establishments and need to turn a profit over a short run. I do not know what their overhead is, but will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it is rather high (if anyone knows the hotel’s financial relationship with Institution I’d be curious to know). Yes, there must be year-​round maintenance on this splendid structure… I get that.
But the bottom line: this is a $ 15 hotel brunch one grade above Bellinger Hall up the hill (there is a relationship, by the way). If you are on the veranda maybe it’s worth $ 20 for the view. Much in the buffet seems to come from a can (bean salad, beets, and the like). Of the meats, the skirt steak seemed C-​grade institutional, the ham was nothing special. Escolar (???)…really? The fish that is illegal in several countries for causing anal leakage of wax esters? I checked the chair before sitting.
The egg dish was heavy, overcooked. Everything was oversalted (that from someone who tends to like salt). The crab legs were so salty they would have been inedible had I not wanted to get something other than the view for my $ 40. Shrimp cocktail: below average freshness. There were the usual buffet suspects; bacon, sausage, etc. that I did not try. The desserts were surprisingly mediocre. I suspect the cookies were store-​bought. The cakes heavy and bland. Bad coffee.
In addition, if you’re looking for anything sustainable, organic, healthy, well-​farmed, look elsewhere (I admit, Sunday brunch buffets are not the place to look for these).
Maybe the Athenaeum should be encouraged to go in this direction: smaller portions, local, sustainable, healthy, better prep; think about animal welfare; check the Monterey Bay Seafood Guide. I have a huge appetite and do consider portion size when choosing a restaurant, but I would gladly have traded ½ of my plate at this brunch for something healthier, better for the planet, and better prepared. But still not for $ 40.
Perhaps this speaks to the palates of Chautauquans in general. Maybe people here really don’t mind paying $ 40 for an endless supply of poorly-​prepared low-​quality high-​environmental-​impact food to throw down their gullets (and I admit, I did just that). In Chautauqua these days at least there are some nicer, healthier, more afforable options (of the café variety). I would like to know why the Athenaeum can’t do better, especially for the price. And what of the relationship between the progressiveness of the Institution in general and the high environmental cost of this buffet?
Finally, it should be noted that the very pleasant servers are given only 4% tip for their work off the bill, and one can’t add a credit card tip to add to that. Cash only. I am really curious what the restaurant’s profit margins are. I suspect they are very hefty.
I will check in again in five years.

Yes, this is definitely as good as it gets. It’s so good in fact that I am hard put to find proper words to describe it.
As a part of the great Chautauqua Institute the Athenaeum Hotel is one of the last big remaining wooden structure hotels in America and a true symbol of everything that was America back in the late 1880’s.
Known as a «grand dame» of hotels it has served guests since 1881 and the best feature of it is that it really hasn’t change all that much. A visit to the Athenaeum is truly a visit back in time, back to what was then a golden age of culture for which Chautauqua Institute holds an unchallenged reputation throughout the world. Just a casual walk through this hotel is an experience you will never forget.

One of the hidden jewels of Western New York!
And part of a hidden history of early 20^th century Americanna that lives on, from wikipedia: «Chautauqua (pronounced /​tkw/​sh-​TAW-​kw) is an adult education movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-​1920s. The Chautauqua brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers, preachers and specialists of the day.[1] Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was quoted as saying that Chautauqua is «the most American thing in America.»
The Athenaeum hotel is the central lodging and wedding reception location providing couples a wonderful destination wedding reception with amazing victorian architecture and the charm of a few creeky floorboards. I have photographed more than 5 weddings at the Athenaeum Hotel and the food and service has always been excellent! Christine Hawkins is the coordinator there and she is friendly, and professional.

I agree with the other review.
The hotel is HUGE, and has a lot of character to it (from the large lobby to manual elevator to the sloping floors in the long halls).
This hotel was one of if not the first hotel built with electricity, since Thomas Edison lived in a nearby house at the Chautauqua Institution.

I stayed at the Athenaeum Hotel for my cousin’s wedding last year. The place is extremely relaxing, old, and beautiful. The history, atmosphere, people, lake, and antiques make this place worth visiting.
The elevator was definitely worth getting on if you get a chance to do so in the daytime. It’s not any modern day elevator you see in the malls. It’s one of those OOoooooooolllllld elevators where a person must manually operate it. It’s like a free historic (magic mountain) ride in itself.
My relatives and I took our time walking around within the building. There are some rooms which looked really spooky or haunted. Don’t take that comment the wrong way, this place is extremely safe because it’s a small part of town where many academically motivated people meet for conferences! If you have extra time, come stay at this hotel and be prepared to be greeted by many friendly locals/​visitors as you go out for a walk.